


Different Than Before

by Ididntsignupforthisshit (myhamartia)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Keith centric, No Dialogue, after canon, post episode 11, written pre-season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 00:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8181598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myhamartia/pseuds/Ididntsignupforthisshit
Summary: Mikiri said:For the prompt thing. Keith and VV: An abandoned or empty place.After the Lions were separated and sent through a corrupted wormhole, Keith found himself on a planet of sand and a burning sun.He doesn't mind solitude. He likes it, in fact. but this... He doesn't like this.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mikiri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikiri/gifts).



         This was so much different than his cabin.

    It was eerily similar, but  _ nothing _ like before.

    He figures that he’s grown soft, or whatever that means. Here he is, crash landed after the corrupted wormhole separated them. He couldn’t remember much about when he first landed; there were flashes of memory, bright emergency lights, yelling in his comms from everyone else as they were ripped from the castle. There was another vocalization he was sure was his, terrified, screaming,  _ praying _ that everything would turn out right. He remembered the lurching in his chest as he was supposedly ejected from Red’s mouth after they neared the surface.

    His visor was dark, still tinted against the glare of nearby stars. He couldn’t see anything as he was sent into a free fall, careening towards the planet’s surface.

    His bones were jarred when he landed - he was sure that it would have been worse if he was stripped of his armor. He found himself jerking his helmet off as he hauled himself to his feet on the unsteady ground. Going from the dark visor to a glaring sun was too much, it had him flinging his arm up to shade his eyes instantly, hissing at the sudden heat on his cheeks and the back of his neck. He had to put his helmet back on in order to be able to see. Even through the dark view plate, he could see clearly around the terrain.

    It was all sand. Deep red sands that glinted dangerously in the sun’s light. It stretched on forever, seemingly. Deep red sands against a yellow sky. It was dizzying, being all alone again. He didn’t let himself think about it. He looked for Red instead.

    Keith hadn’t known where to look, he simply started walking. It was like walking, guided by a rope. He followed the tug on his chest until he came to her. Half delirious from the heat that was able to soak into his armor and dehydration, he was convinced that she was something out of his imagination. Nevertheless, he followed to her.

    She was sitting at attention, nose angled upwards as she looked down at everyone who dared approach her. Still skeptical, he thrust his hand out, more than expecting it to simply pass through. He inhaled sharply as the particle barrier parted a little. As predicted, it let his hand pass, but the sensation was familiar. It sent cool tingles down his spine as Red spoke to him, humming along in his head.

    The moments of hustle from there was a blur. He had retrieved the water pouches sometime that day. There was only six left, now. Four days into this madness, and he only had thirty-six ounces of water and a giant magic, robotic alien left to his name. A name that would die with him on this unmarked planet, in the cockpit of his lion as he looked over the blood red horizon.

    He was now sitting still in his pilot’s chair, sucking at one of the water pouches ( _ five left _ , a sing-song voice in his head taunted) idly as he looked out Red’s eyes. He could see nothing but red sand stretched out to the horizon and the yellow sky. His controls had stopped working and he was being faced with a black, glossy dashboard - inactive, still,  _ dead _ . All power had been put towards circulating fresh oxygen for Keith and to keep the particle barrier up and running.

    Solitude had always been easy for Keith. He wasn’t one for big crowds, or gross public displays of affection. His hugs were rare, as were his deep conversations and moments of emotional openness. The time after leaving earth was the hardest - when the castle-ship was still sitting snugly on that cliff in Arus and they were just getting their grips on reality, processing things such as aliens, Voltron and Galra.

    In that time, he was never alone, whether the circumstance be to nosy teammates looking for entertainment ( _ Lance _ ), stupid team building exercises or trying to learn how to form Voltron. It always put him on edge. After living in the desert, in a  _ shack _ for as long as he had, it was hard getting used to, everyone all up in your business 24/7 or whatever measurement of time worked on a spaceship that didn’t hold day/night cycles.

    He found himself often seeking out solitude on the ship. There were times where he missed many hours of sleep because he was in the training deck, working through thoughts and feelings long into the night-or-whatever-equivalent-on-a-castle-ship.

    Solitary moments were  _ craved _ when he was on the castle-ship. Now? God, he just wanted someone to talk to. He was close to banging his head against the wall, or hell, going out and letting the sun melt out his brain, if that meant that the quiet would stop. He missed them. He missed Allura’s sureness in everything they did, or at least, he missed the front she put up that made them believe that she was so sure in their actions. He missed Coran’s rabbit trailed stories and wild tales about himself as a young man living in Altea. He missed Pidge’s constant sassy remarks, and Hunk’s caring wisdom, Shiro’s guidance and familiar leadership. He even missed  _ Lance _ , of all people. They were just getting along well - sure, they were still at odds three times out of four, but they were getting better. He missed the constant chatter that always surrounded him on the ship. Battle plans being drawn up, teasing amongst teammates -  _ friends _ .

    There was always a constant conversation on the castle-ship. On this planet, Keith was alone and there was  _ nothing _ . Nothing but the howling winds and sounds he made as he sucked on the water pouches.

    By day two, Red had stopped talking to him. He supposed that she was focusing in on keeping him alive, putting her energies somewhere productive instead of idly talking to him, reassuring him that help would come.

    He tried rooting around in her manually, trying to get her systems operating and back online, but there was no good results; only a misplaced wire that sparked in his face and gave him spotted vision for a good hour. He hadn’t tried again after that, only sat on his chair and looked out of Red’s eyes.

    His paladin armor kept lit up, but it was growing increasingly dimmer. The displays still worked, but there was no signal and no Red to bounce a distress signal off of like a gigantic antenna, so he thought them useless. He couldn’t even scan the planet for new caches of water. The best it did was light up the dark cockpit and fight off the darkness, if for a little bit.

    He couldn’t go outside without the unforgiving, sweltering heat beating down on him. It weighted down on him and made him want to stop moving altogether because movement created friction. Friction creates heat. Heat is the last thing he wants.

    His only relief was night. The air drastically cooled, but he still didn’t leave Red. Night was when the wind kicked up. Everytime, without fail, as the desert planet circled the star in its orbit, the wind would pick up, blowing violently in shocking sandstorms. The sand passed so quickly and violently around Red that Keith was afraid that the coarse sand would cut right through the Altean metal that was Red’s body. The wind never blew except for at night, as if the air was scared of the planet’s star and hid away from him until it was hidden from them.

    It never happened, of course, but that didn’t stop Keith’s mind from anxiously imagining the scenario in horrific, graphic detail.

    He could just see the winds begin to carry the dunes, intent on rearranging them, possibly until they swallowed Red up the two of them were to be left buried under the surface of this planet forever. He could just see -

    Hold on a second.

    He can  _ see _ sand flying across the view from Red’s eyes. It was there, a cloud of red running and glinting in the star’s light.  _ The wind never blew in the day _ . He cautiously stands up from his seat and leaned over the dash, trying to see outside a bit farther, up on his tip toes. He almost climbed straight up on the dashboard, but stopped himself just short.

    There was a shadow to the right of Red. Large, looming and  _ definitely something _ .

    He grabs as helmet from where it was carelessly discarded beside his chair and quickly pulled it on. He took out his bayard, though it hard barely enough charge to form his sword, and runs to Red’s exit.

    The heat made his head swim, but he disregarded it, plowing forward as he pitched himself across the sands, looking up to the shadow. It’s hard to see more than a giant oblong shape, with the sun in the direct overhead position as it was, but Keith could see enough to guess what it was. The tail was a giveaway, along with the loud transmitted sound coming from the lion’s mouth.

    It sounded a hell of a lot like Lance’s siren sound, though it came from Green. The sound - God, a  _ sound _ that wasn’t rushing winds and his own thoughts. A bubbly feeling filled his chest as it rang in his ears - was cut off as the lion descended a little faster.

    Keith stares with rapt attention as two figures were ejected from the mouth of Green: one tall, the other incredibly tiny. He can’t help himself, he starts out in a run, tripping multiple times on the accursed sands in his hurry. He’s panting when he catches up to Pidge and Lance. He’s met with arms tossed carelessly around him and worried words. His heart feels as if it it's going to burst from his chest by the rate it’s pounding, but he pays it no mind. He’s too caught up in the feeling of Pidge and Lance beside him, two pairs of arms hugging him tight and the hope, the knowledge that soon he’d be with his team. Soon, he’d be home.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! It was a tumblr prompt from @mikiri. I absolutely enjoyed writing it.
> 
> Please drop me a comment! Or, check out my tumblr @youngtiredandhungry . I'm still accepting ( http://youngtiredandhungry.tumblr.com/post/151208028509/send-me-characters-and-a-letter-and-ill-write ) these prompts, if you want to send one in!


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